Adjustable door template



July 21, 1959 e. E. STRICKLAND ADJUSTABLE DOOR TEMPLATE Filed Oct. 3, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 iNVENTOR.

GORDON E. STR/OKLA/VD TTOR/VEYS y 1959 G. E. STQICKLAND' 2,895,229

ADJUSTABLE DOOR TEMPLATE Filled Oct. 5. 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVEN TOR. GORDON E. STR/OKLA/VD BY Z 12; "W014, TOR/V575 United States Patent M ADJUSTABLE DOOR TEMPLATE Gordon E. Strickland, Palo Alto, Calif.

Application October 3, 1955, Serial No. 538,207

6 Claims. (Cl. 33-194) This invention relates to door templates, the purpose of which is to obtain the exact shape of an opening into which a door or the like is to be fitted so that a stock door or slab may be trimmed to fit the opening within required tolerances.

It has long been common practice to make templates of door openings for use in trimming doors and several different types of adjustable door templates have been devised. In practice such a template is placed within an opening and adjusted to the proper size and shape and then placed upon the door as a pattern for scribing the desired shape or to be used as a guide for planes and saws used for trimming the door. With the advent of power tools which save time in the trimming of the door, it has become less convenient to move the shop or tools from one location to another and, therefore, the distance that the template for each door must be carried has become greater. In large buildings such as schools, dormitories and hotels, it is often inconvenient to set up a door trimming shop within the building and the template must be carried from each of several hundred door openings to a remotely located shop for application to as many doors.

It is the object of the present invention to overcome the disadvantages of presently known door templates and to provide a door template which saves much of the time and labor required in transporting the template from each door opening to the locale of the doors and tools.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a door template which produces a recordable reading of the size and shape of an opening so that the reading for many openings may be recorded and the template may be reset to the readings one at a time for trimming doors to fit the openings.

Another object is to provide a template with means for securing it on a door in a fixed position with reference to the door edges and permitting it to be adjusted a predetermined distance in four directions whereby each edge of the template may be used as a guide for trimming the corresponding edge of the door with conventional power tools.

Another object is to provide an adjustable template with adjusting means that are easily set by a simple manipulation and that will retain their setting without the use of special locking means.

Still further and more specific objects and advantages of the invention are made apparent in the following specification Wehrein reference is made to the accompanying drawings illustrating a preferred form of the invention.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a door template embodying the present invention,

Fig. 2 is a partial sectional view taken on the line IIII of Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail in plan of a calibrated adjusting dial employed as a part of the template,

2,895,229 Patented July 21, 1959 Fig. 4 is a view like Fig. 3 with the top plate and hand lever of the dial removed,

5 is a sectional View taken on the line VV of F Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken on the line VIVI of Fig. 7 is an enlarged detail in perspective of one guide member used for longitudinal adjustment of the template on a door,

Fig. 8 is a similar view of a similar guide member with associated stops, and

Fig. 9 is a perspective view of a guide and stop memger for lateral adjustment of the door template on a oor.

In Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings, the template of the present invention is shown as made up of a body or base member comprising a pair of fiat parts 10 and 11 connected as by plates 12, shown as 3 in number, to form a body of generally rectangular shape. The parts 10, 11 and 12 may be made of any suitable light material such as plywood or sheet metal and they are connected together by bolts with wing nuts illustrated at 13 so that with the provision of a plurality of spaced perforations 14 in the connecting members, the width of the body may be readily changed. Formation of the body in separable parts in this manner also enables it to be readily dismantled for transportation and storing.

Each edge of the rectangular body member is provided with a movable flexible strip such as shown at 15 for the side edges, 16 for the top edge and 17 for the bottom edge. These strips may be made of straight grained oak or other similar wood which is durable and sufficiently flexible to permit the strips to accommodate to slight curves or misalignments such as may occur in an ordinary door frame. The side strips 15 and the top strip 16 are mounted for outward and upward sliding movement respectively so that when the body member is placed ina door opening the strips may be urged outwardly into engagement with the inner faces of the opening to produce an exact replica or template of its size and shape. The bottom strip 17 may also be made adjustable if desired but since the bottom clearance of the door is usually greater and less critical, it has been found satisfactory to attach the bottom strip to the body member as by bolts and wing nuts shown at 18. Since doors are made in difierent heights usually 6 8" or 7 two bottom strips of different widths may be employed; one being used for each standard door height. As the widths of doors usually vary in two inch increments, the spacing of the perforations 14 in the connecting members 12 may be such as to enable ready adjustment of the width of the template to doors of different sizes. The adjustable strips 15 and 16 may overlie or exceed the edges of the body members by a short distance as illustrated and are preferably retractable to positions slightly within these edges to protect their own edges from damage while the template is being carried or inserted in a door opening. They are maintained in sliding contact with the surface of the body. member as by a plurality of small metal clips or guide members 19 which are secured to the body members and overlie the strips. I

When a template of a door frame is to be made, the template fixture is set within the frame in the position normally occupied by a door and the strips 15 and 16 are advanced outwardly and upwardly until they come in contact with the frame at all parts throughout their lengths. In accordance with the present invention, calibrated means are employed for advancing the strips out- Wardly so that when they are in contact with the frame, readings may be taken from (these calibrated means and recorded as a table of offsets to enable a workman later to reset the calibrated means and'thus recovering the exact template shape of the door opening. Because of this improvement, a workman may enter a building with any number of doorways of the same stock size and take and record readings of the'template sizev for each door. The template is then carried toa shop where the stock doors and all of the tools required for efiiciently trimming them are conveniently arranged and the template is adjusted for each door for which readings have been taken so that the doors may be trimmed, numbered and returned in any quantity and by any convenient means of transportation to the building where they are to be hung.

Calibrated readings of the template shape can' be obtained by various means such as threaded jack rods or wedge devices but the present invention provides a most simple and convenient device for this purpose, several of which are shown at 20 in Figs. 1 and 2 and the details of construction of which are illustratedin Figs. 3 to 6, inclusive. Referring to the last named figures, each of these devices is illustrated as comprising a base plate 21 bolted or otherwise secured to the body member and carrying a sliding plate 22 received in a suitable recess in the base plate and connected at its outer end with the flexible template strip as by a screw or a pin 23. This pin extends through the flexible strip and, as illustrated in Fig. 5, its inner end may be provided with a nut received in a recess 24- in the body member. The sliding plate 22 also carries a pin 25 connecting it toa ring 26 resting upon the base plate and a disk 27 eccentrically mounted as by a pin 28 extends into this ring so that upon rotation of the disk about its eccentric pin, the ring and the sliding plate 22 may be advanced inwardly or outwardly to adjust the position of the flexible strip to which the sliding plate is connected. As illustrated in Fig. 3, a portion of the edge of the disk 27 is calibrated with a scale 29 and a reference mark 30 for cooperation with the scale is placed on the ring 26. A member 31 is employed to rotate the disk about its eccentrically disposed pin and when it is rotated to urge the flexible stri outwardly into contact with the door opening, the position of such contact will be indicated by the scale and reference mark 30. As illustrated in Fig. 1, there are a plurality, four being shown, of the calibrated members 20 for each of the side strips 15 and two substantially identical members 20a for the top strip 16. The sliding plates for the members 20a are shown at 22a as being somewhat longer than the sliding strips 22 to avoid interference between the members 20 and 20a. The strips 22a may pass through suitable slots formed in the base members 21 of the members 20 adjacent the top of the template. This variation in construction is, of course, only to enable desired spacing of the calibrated adjusting members. Since the overall length of the side members 15 may vary slightly due to bending when they are iirged outwardly into contact with a door frame that is not perfectly straight, all but one of the adjusting members may be connected to them by a lost motion connection such as a pin and slot indicated at 33 in Fig. 1 while-a single fitted pin connection 34 on each of the side stripsis suflicient to retain them against undesirable longitudinal movement.

In the operation of fitting the template into a door frame, it is set in the frame, preferably in a substantially central position with each of the strips 15 and 16 fully retracted. Rotation of the disks on the top strip adjusting means 20a holds the template in the frame so that each of the adjusting means 20 may be quickly rotated to advance the strips 15 outwardly into contact with the frame throughout their lengths. The strip on the hinge side of the door may first be adjusted outwardly a uniform distance to square the template in the frame if desired. Since a half turn of each of the disks 27 is sufficient to advance the strip of an inch, the adjustment of all of them may be quickly accomplished.

The calibrations extending through are marked off in ten parts which are numbered. Each of these parts is divided into five parts which represent only .008 inch diiferential in the position of the flexible strip. Since each of the ten numbered calibrations represents only 40 thousandths or slightly over & of an inch, it is apparent that a very precise reading may be taken and recorded with little difficulty of all of the ten calibrated dials and it is a simple matter after recordings of several frame sizes have been taken to reset the template to the exact size of any frame.

When a door is to be trimmed, it is supported in a hori Zontal position on horses or a suitable bench and the template laid upon it with each of the calibrated dials set from the reading of the frame in which the door is to be hung. The template is then adjusted to a substantially central position upon the door with its bottom edge aligned with the bottom of the door if the bottom is not to be trimmed. The template is then clamped to the door by means which permit it to slide longitudinally away from the top a fixed distance. The top of the door is then trimmed with a hand power saw of conventional design having a fence which rests on the door and engages the top template strip 16. The means which permit this sliding movement of the template when it is clamped to the door are generally indicated at 35 and 36 in Fig. 1 and are shown in detail in Figs. 7 and 8. Each of the means 35 and 36 comprises a block 37 slidable in the slot 38 formed in the body member 10 and extending through the slot so that a C-clamp engaging the block 37 on one side and the door on the other side enables the template to slide longitudinally of the door. The block 37 on the clamping means 36 is provided with end members 39 carrying adjustable stops 40. These stops engage with fixed stops 41 adjacent the ends of the slots 38 which limit the sliding of the template on the door. If the lowermost stops 40 and 41 are in engagement when the template is clamped to the door, the template may be moved downwardly of the door until the uppermost stop 40 engages the uppermost stop 41 and by proper adjustment of the stop 40, this distance will correspond to the exact width of the fence on the saw plus the desired clearances at the top and bottom of the door.

Before the C-clamps are released, so that the original position of the template on the door can be preserved, the template is clamped to the door by means which permit it to move from side to side to enable trimming of the side edges to the template size less the clearances desired. These last means are illustrated at 43 in Fig. 1 and shown in greater detail in Fig. 9 as each comprising a rectangular frame secured to the body member 10 as by bolts and wing nuts 44 and carrying a sliding block 45 adapted to engage adjustable stops 46 provided in each end of the frame. C-clamps are again employed to secure the blocks 45 to the door and when these clamps are firmly in place, the clamps previously used on the members 35 and 36 are removed. Care must be taken when the clamps are placed on the blocks 45 that the blocks assume a central position between the stops 46, which position is indicated as by reference lines shown at 48 on the block 45 and the frame member in' which it slides. The distance between the block 45 and each of the stops 46 is again the same as the width of the fence on thetool that is to be used in trimming the edges of the door. With the template thus clamped to the door, it is simply necessary to slide it to the left as far as possible for trimming the right side of the door and to the right for trimming the left side of the door. The trimming of the sides is usually done with a conventional hand power planer having a planer fence to bear against the edge of the template strips 15 and thuslimit the depth of its cut to the precise size and shape represented by the template. Suitable tolerances to produce a door slightly smaller than the opening are, of course, necessary and are easily provided as for example by adjustment of the stop members 46 and the stop members 40.

In actual practice, setting of the template in an opening and recording the reading of the dials thereon may be accomplished very quickly as may also be the application of the template to the door to be trimmed. Consequently where large numbers of doors are being hung a great deal of time and labor is saved in the transportation of the template from the job to the shop, as 'well as in the transportation of the doors, and high precision is obtained in the fitting of the doors to their individual openings.

1 claim:

1. A template for use in fitting doors in door openings which comprises a panel-like member, a plurality of adjustable edge portions, means mounting said edge portions on said member for movement outwardly relative to said member to engage the edges of an opening, clampable means movably mounted on said member for movement relative to said member and movable independently of said edge portions, and guide means on said member engaging said clampable means for guiding movement of said member relative to said clampable means when said clampable means is clamped to a door for the purpose of facilitating the use of said edge portions as guide means for trimming the door.

2. A template for use in fitting doors in door openings which comprises a panel-like member, adjustable edges on said member, means to move said edges outwardly to engage the edges of the opening, said member having parallel slots therein extending therethrough, means slidable in said slots extending through the panel member and adapted to be clamped to a door whereby the panel member and its adjusted edges may be moved relative to the door while said means are clamped to the door for the purpose of facilitating the use of said adjustable edges as guide means for trimming the door.

3. A template for doors which comprises a body member adapted to fit within a framed door opening, flexible strips supported adjacent the edges of the body member, a plurality of calibrated means spaced throughout the lengths of said strips to advance them outwardly of the body member and into contact with the frame of the opening, and slidable means carried by and extending through the body member which slidable means may be clamped to a door to permit the template to be moved relative to the door while the clamps are engaged.

4. A template for doors which comprises a body member adapted to fit within a framed door opening, flexible strips supported adjacent the edges of the body member, a plurality of calibrated means spaced throughout the lengths of said strips toadvance them outwardly of the body member and into contact with the frame of the opening, slidable means carried by and extending through the body member which slidable means may be clamped to a door to permit the template to be moved relative to the door while the clamps are engaged, and stop means associated with smd sliding means to limit the distance of said movement.

5. A template for doors which comprises a body mem ber adapted to fit within a framed door opening, flexible strips supported adjacent the edges of the body member, a plurality of calibrated means spaced throughout the lengths of said strips to advance them outwardly of the body member and into contact with the frame of the opening, means slidable longitudinally of the body member and extending therethrough in a position to be clamped to a door to permit the template to be moved longitudinally of the door, and similar means slidable transversely to be clamped to the door to permit lateral moving of the template.

6. A template for doors which comprises a body member adapted to fit within a framed door opening, flexible strips supported adjacent the edges of the body member, a plurality of calibrated means spaced throughout the lengths of said strips to advance them outwardly of the body member and into contact with the frame of the opening, means slidable longitudinally of the body member and extending therethrough in a position to be clamped to a door to permit the template to be moved longitudinally of the door, similar means slidable transversely to be clamped to the door to permit lateral moving of the template, and stop means associated with all of said sliding means to establish a predetermined maxi mum distance between the edges of the template and the corresponding edges of the door.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 481,245 Ritterbeck Aug. 23, 1892 493,566 Steedm-an Mar. 14, 1893 1,326,583 Catalanotto Dec. 20, 1919 1,419,354 Boon June 13, 1922 2,368,344 Caruso Jan. 30, 1945 2,374,286 Hardgadon Apr. 24, 1945 2,679,696 Reeder June 1, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 10,510 Great Britain AD. 1909 

